Voting Basics

Voting is an extremely important part of adult life. Throughout history, many groups have fought and suffered for the right to vote, yet in many elections, less than half of eligible voters show up to cast their vote. If you think about this for a minute, that means that elections are often decided by only a small percentage of eligible voters.

Read the article below on voting and answer the questions that follow:

9 Reasons We Need Young Voters More Than Ever (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Questions:

1) In your opinion, what is the most compelling reason to vote?

2) Why do you think many young people do not vote?

3) What are some ways you can get involved and make your voice heard?

4) Are you registered to vote? If not, you can register here . Even if you are not yet 18, you can pre-register, and you will be registered on your 18th birthday. If you are not registered to vote, discuss when you will register or why you have decided not to.

5) Look at the following resources, then list one thing you learned from these resources:
Headcount.org - Music,Democracy, Action: https://www.headcount.org/state/california/?section=voter-id 
Non-partisan information on the positions of members of Congress on various issues: http://votesmart.org
Voter’s Edge California - information on ballot measures and candidates: http://votersedge.org/ca 

How to Make Hard Choices

QW: Describe a time when you had to make a hard decision.

Choices are an integral part of our lives - there are small choices (e.g. what to eat for breakfast) and large choices (e.g. what career to choose, or where to go to college).  In her Ted talk, Ruth Chang explains what makes hard choices so hard, and what we can learn about ourselves as we make those choices.

Watch Ms. Chang's TED talk "How to Make Hard Choices", then answer the questions on this worksheet.

Cover Letter

QW: What skills or qualities do you have that will benefit a company you are working for?

A cover letter is a professional letter that is often required for job applications. The cover letter gives you a chance to discuss your unique talents and explain why you are a good fit for the job. It complements your resume by giving more detail about your skills, experience, and qualifications and should be tailored to the specific job you are applying to.

The cover letter should not simply restate your resume - the potential employer has already seen that and doesn't need another paper saying exactly the same thing. The purpose of the cover letter is to focus attention on particular aspects of your experience that relate to the job and your ability to do it well. It should also explain how hiring you will benefit the business or organization.

For this assignment, you will write a cover letter to apply to the job you identified in last week's assignment. Use a professional letter format (you can find templates on Google Docs) and use the following format:

• 1st paragraph - introduce yourself and state the job you are applying for
• Middle paragraphs - in one or more paragraphs, sum up your qualifications and skills and why you are a good fit for this job. You shouldn't just restate your resume, but rather highlight the specific skills and experience that are relevant for the job you are applying to.
• Final paragraph - thank the reader for considering your application and state that you look forward to hearing from them.

This article on monster.com gives a little more information about what a cover letter is and how to write one.

An example of a cover letter can be found at the link below:
Example cover letter

And here is a template you can use for your cover letter, if you find it useful:

Cover letter template

Turn in your completed cover letter to your EF.

Job Search

QW: Where would you look if you were looking for a job?

It used to be that when someone needed a job, they just walked around looking for help wanted signs, or looked in the help wanted section of the paper.  If they were looking for a job out of college, the path was often clear; there were a limited number of companies and it was obvious whom to contact. 

The job market has changed drastically over the past couple of decades.  Job searches are now mostly online, with websites where you can post your resume and look for jobs all over the country.  Many professional organizations have their own online job boards, for example edjoin for education jobs.  There are also generic sites like indeed.com, ziprecruiter.com, and monster.com.  Even Google seems to have its own job search engine; try googling a job you are interested in and see what comes up.

One great resource for local jobs is the Siskiyou Training and Employment Program (STEP) Siskiyou jobs list.  They update this list weekly with all sorts of jobs in the local area - the current list is 15 pages long.

Another good source for local jobs is the localhelpwanted.com . The closest to here would probably be reddinghelpwanted.com.

For this assignment, look over the job search resources below.  Find a job that looks interesting to you, and complete the cover letter worksheet specific to that job.  Next week, we will explore the cover letter in more detail.
Some useful job search resources:

• STEP Siskiyou County Job List
• Government Jobs in Siskiyou County
• Regional Help Wanted
• STEP office website

And here is the cover letter worksheet

Resume

QW: If you are applying for a job, what information do you think is important for your potential employer to know?

When you are applying for a job, most employers will ask for a resume listing your skills and experience.  Even if the job you are applying for does not require a resume, it can be helpful because it gives the potential employer a quick overview of your skills and work experience, both paid and volunteer.

But what if I don't have any experience?

You might have more than you think.  Don't get stuck on paid experience or the typical job working for a company.  On your resume you can include any volunteer work you've done, or odd jobs like babysitting and yard work.

Things to include in a resume:

Your resume should be limited to 1 page and should include the following information:

• Name and contact information
• Education (including expected graduation date for high school students)
• Experience
• References
• You may include other sections on your resume; some common topics include: 
• skills
• activities,
• awards,
• leadership experience
• other topics that are relevant to your experience or the particular job, including languages spoken, writing skills, technical skills, etc.

Formatting:

Your resume should look neat and be easy to read.  Make sure your formatting lines up in a visually appealing way (that is, when you indent, everything indented lines up). Avoid using fancy or whimsical fonts - your best bet is a classic font more or less like the one you are reading right now.

Some final tips:

Your resume is often the first impression you are giving a potential employer about your skills, professionalism, and attention to detail.  Make sure you proofread your resume carefully (and have someone else proofread it as well), typos, spelling mistakes and grammar errors make it look like either you don't know how to write properly or you don't care enough to check your work.  Either one looks bad to a potential employer.  In addition, the following tips will help you create a good resume:

• Keep your resume to one page (references may be on an additional page, but the main content should fit on one page) 
• Focus your skills and experience on the type of job you are applying to.  The more closely your experience and skills match the needs of the job, the more likely you are to get hired. It's good practice to customize your resume to the specific job you are applying to.
• Proofread, proofread, proofread
• Keep your language and the structure of your writing consistent.  That is, if for one example of experience you put "taught 3rd graders math", use the same tense and structure for all your experience; don't put "helping teach young children to read" on the next one. Use past tense (e.g. "taught") for both
• Make sure your finished, printed resume looks good.  If your printer is running out of ink, go to a copy center to print it, or have a friend with a good printer do so.

Assignment:

Using the tips above, other online resources, and this example resume as a guide, create a resume for yourself and turn it in to your EF.  Ask for feedback, and then revise your resume.

Scholarship Applications

QW: What are some of the benefits of scholarships?

Think about this for a minute.  Imagine you listened to your college advisor and applied for all the scholarships you were eligible for.  And let's say you received a scholarship for $1,000.  That might not seem like a whole lot, but let's think of it in terms of time.  If you're trying to avoid loans, without that scholarship you would have to find a way to come up with that money. If you're working for $10 per hour, that's 100 hours you need to work (probably more, if you factor in taxes and other payroll withholding).  That's 100 hours more over the course of the year, or 10 hours per month, or roughly 2.5 more hours each week that you have to devote to studying, spending time with friends, or trying to catch your breath from you busy life as a student.  Or if you do take out loans, at an average 5% interest, that $1000 would be $1221 you owe after 4 years - so that scholarship is worth even more than $1000. 

Now imagine you could get $5,000 in scholarships.  Using the numbers above, that would be an additional 12.5 hours per week you can study instead of working; if you were to take out that much in student loans, you would now owe $6,107 upon graduation.

That was kind of a long-winded way to convince you that free money is good.  Obviously, we all could use some free money to help with our college expenses.  Why then, do so many students not complete scholarship applications?

Watch this video on scholarships from Khan Academy

Assignment:

Part I: After reading the information above and watching the video, answer the following questions and turn them in to your EF:

1. Why do you think a lot of students don't apply for scholarships?
2. What would you say to a friend to convince them it is worthwhile to apply for scholarships?
3. What is something you learned about scholarships, how to search for them, or how/why to apply?

Part II: Using some of the scholarship search strategies discussed in the previous post, identify several scholarships to apply to.  Complete at least one scholarship application and turn in a copy to your EF.

Scholarship Search Strategies

QW: What is something special or unique about you?

When it comes to searching for scholarships, think about it as a part time job. If you spend 10 hours searching for and applying to scholarships, and you end up receiving $1000 in scholarships, you just made $100 per hour. Where else are you going to (legally) be able to make that much? Of course, there's no guarantee you're going to receive a scholarship, but if you don't apply, you're sure to not get anything.

Where to look:

There are a number of places you can look for scholarships. Below are some suggestions to get you started.

1. Start local

Research scholarships offered by local community organizations and businesses. These often have less competition that the larger regional, state, and national scholarships. Scholarships are often offered by local Rotary clubs, banks, businesses, etc. Alana has a list of scholarships each year that include many local scholarships. You can find that list here. 

1a. The biggies in our region:

The two major scholarship programs in this region are the McConnell Foundation Scholarship and the Ford Foundation Scholarship. The McConnell scholarship is $7500 per year, renewable for 4 years. The Ford Family Foundation Scholarship will cover 90% of your unmet need, but can only be used in California. Both of these are need based; if you qualify, you should definitely apply!

2. Scholarship search sites

There are number of websites where you can search for scholarships. For some of these sites, you may find a lot of scholarships that are either junk or not applicable to you, but there may be a few gems hidden in there, and it may be worth your time to look. Here are some that I've found to be good:
College Greenlight 
Big Future 
Niche 

3. Your institution

Most colleges and universities have their own scholarships. Sometimes the scholarship application is included in the admission application, sometimes it is a separate application. Do not wait until you know if you are admitted before completing the scholarship application; you might miss the due date. Once you know you are planning to apply, complete the scholarship application. Check out the website, and also the various departments within the college. That is, if you are planning to study engineering, see if there are specific engineering scholarships that the school offers.

4. Professional organizations in your intended career

Again, if you are planning on studying engineering, check out the national society of professional engineers, and see if they have any scholarships. Also check out other national engineering societies, as well as state organizations. The same goes for any other industry sector.

5. General Google search

If you want to study sociology, Google "scholarships for sociology". You might pick up something you missed in the other steps above. This is also where you tie in the topic from your quick write - what is something unique about you? If you play the tuba, search for scholarships for tuba players. If you're vegan, search for vegan scholarships. There aren't necessarily scholarships for every possible unique characteristic, but you won't know if you don't look.

OK, you've found some scholarships, now what?

Once you've identified your scholarships, you'll need to complete the applications. Know your due dates and give yourself plenty of time. Applications may include essays you need to write, transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc. Be sure to plan ahead, so you're not scrambling for an official transcript during a time your school is closed or on vacation.

Similarly, give the people you are asking for letters of recommendation enough time to write you a good one. It also helps to give them some background information on the scholarship, you are applying to, including the selection criteria, so they can write the best possible letter for you. If you have extracurricular activities that relate to the scholarship criteria, make sure your recommender knows about that. Finally, let them know the name of the person to address the letter to, as well as the due date.

Finally, enlist your family, friends, counselor, and/or English teacher to look over your essays and give you feedback. Obviously, it needs to be your work, but they might catch some errors or point out ways you can make your essays stronger.

Assignment:

Create a plan for your scholarship search. Complete the following, and turn in to your EF:

• List at least 2 places you will look for scholarships. 
• Identify the people you will ask for letters of recommendation. 
• Identify at least 3 scholarships you plan to apply for. Provide the scholarship name, link to the application, and due date
• Create a timeline for your scholarship application plan

Financial Aid Overview

QW: What do you know about financial aid?

Financial Aid Basics

A huge volume of information can be found at the federal student aid website , but here is the Reader's Digest version:

Calculating Financial Need:

When you complete the FASFA (which hopefully you have already done), the student aid commission will calculate an Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount the federal government thinks your family should be able to contribute to your education, based on your family's income and assets. The EFC is the same, regardless of which school you ultimately decide to attend. Your financial need, however, will be different for different schools. Financial need is the difference between the cost of attendance (COA) and your EFC:

Financial Need = COA - EFC

If the cost of attendance is greater than your EFC, you are determined to have financial need. The cost of attendance includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. The cost of attendance for most colleges and universities can be found on the institution's website. This need is then addressed in a variety of ways. You may receive some or all of the following:

• Pell grant (federal need-based grant)
• Cal Grant (state need- and merit-based tuition assistance)
• Other federal or state grants
• Institutional grants and scholarships
• Work Study
• Student Loans (more on these later)

Different schools have different policies on how they address your financial need. Some schools commit to meeting students' full financial need, others will offer what they can, but may leave a large gap in funding that the student and family need to figure out how to fill. For schools that meet student's full financial need, some include loans in the package, and others meet financial need entirely with grants and scholarships. You need to research the school's policy (and carefully review your financial aid offer) to know what to expect. Contact Alana if you would like help with this process. 

 

A quick overview of types of aid:

Grants:

Free money that does not need to be paid back, as long as you meet the requirements of the grant (generally taking, and passing, a certain number of credits, and keeping good academic standing). Grants generally are based entirely on financial need, and usually come from the federal or state government.

Scholarships:

Generally both need- and merit-based, but sometimes just merit-based without looking at need. This is also free money that does not need to be paid back. These may come from the college you are attending, from community organizations, or private companies or individuals. Requirements for scholarships vary based on who is providing the money and what they think is important.

Loans:

Money that needs to be paid back, with interest. Generally, student loans do not need to be repaid until after you graduate from college. There are two main types of federal student loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized loans do not accrue interest while you are in school, so the amount you need to repay after you leave school is the amount you borrowed. Unsubsidized loans do accrue interest, so when you leave school, the amount you need to repay is actually more that what you borrowed, unless you make interest payments while you are in school.

Work Study:

This is money the government gives to the school to hire you to do work. For you, it looks and feels like a regular job - you go to work, you get a paycheck. What makes work study special is that it makes it easier for you to get a job on campus (because it is cheaper for them to hire someone with work study than someone without), and money you earn through work-study will not be counted against your financial aid the following year.

Special Circumstances:

Additional aid is available for specific populations.

Students who are (or have been) in foster care qualify for special grants.

Education benefits are also available for military personnel. Most branches of the military offer scholarships to complete your education, then allow you to enter the military as an officer. Of course, if you are not interested in a military career I don't recommend this as a way to fund your education, but if you are interested in the military, it's worth looking into these options. Most of these scholarships come with a commitment of military service after graduation (generally 5 years).

There are loan forgiveness programs for people planning to enter public service careers (like teaching). These programs will eliminate a portion of your student loans (so you don't have to pay back that part). One cautionary note: recently, these programs have been facing some problems, and many people who thought they would qualify for loan forgiveness are not receiving the benefits they thought they would.

Assignment:

Compete the financial aid worksheet

How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt

QW: What does it mean to be "in the driver's seat of your life"?

Activity:
Watch the video by Julien Gorden on How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt:

Then complete the questions on this worksheet. If you make a copy of it, you will be able to type on the worksheet.  Then share it with your EF. You can also print it out to complete it and/or answer the questions on a separate paper, and turn that in to your EF.

What's important in a college/career training program

QW: What's important to you in life?  What factors are important to your future?

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a college: majors offered, of course, but also location, campus climate, activities, cost, and many others.

Read the Blog Post "Finding Balance in Your College Choices" from the Counselor's Corner Blog.  Then reflect on what is important to you in your college or career training experience.  Think about the following factors:

• location
• climate
• community - who you will be interacting with
• size - large campus or small community
• academic or professional support services available
• cost
• cultural or entertainment options
• distance from home
• etc.

Next, fill out this college inventory.  After you have completed the inventory, revisit the four colleges you chose in last week's assignment.  Do you feel they fit your needs (both academic and non-academic)? Identify at least 2 colleges or training programs that you feel are a good fit (these may or may not be the same programs you chose last week).  Spend at least 15 minutes on the website of each college or training program, and write 1-2 paragraphs for each in the ways they do and do not fit the preferences you identified last week and in the college inventory.

Turn the inventory and the reflection in to your EF.

College Research

QW: When you imagine your experience at college, what do you picture?  Write a description of a day in your life in college.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a college to attend.  With over 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, how do you even begin to search?

Some things to consider, obviously, are the majors offered at the school and the quality of the professors.  You can also get a sense of the quality of the school through details like graduation rate, and what percentage of students return for a second year. In addition to the academic considerations, you should also consider the living environment.  After all, you are probably going to spend at least 4 years of your life here, and you're more likely to be successful academically if you are not miserable in your personal life.

Two large pieces of the college search puzzle are match and fit.  Match refers to academics - how does your academic ability match up to what is expected at the college, and how likely are you to be admitted?  This depends largely on grades and test scores.  College fit refers to just about everything else - does the environment suit you?  Is there a good social environment?  Do the academic support services offered meet your needs? What kinds of clubs, entertainment, and athletic opportunities are there? Will you be able to make friends and develop a support network? Does the college offer the major you are interested in?  If you're not 100% positive of your major, are there other interesting major choices if you change your mind?

For this activity, set up an account on raise.me, and print this worksheet.

Watch the slideshow on College Discovery here.  )There's a small white arrow on the right to click through the slides.) After watching the slideshow and researching colleges on raise.me, complete the worksheet.

While you're at it, enter some information into your profile at raise.me (good grades, any advanced classes you've taken, if you've taken the PSAT or SAT, extracurricular activities, etc) and see if you qualify for any microscholarships offered by the raise.me partner schools.  Microscholarships are awards you can get for extracurricular activities, community service, good grades, etc.  They are awarded by different college partners, and if you end up enrolling in one of the colleges where you have earned microscholarships, the money will be added to your financial aid when you enroll.

Turn in the worksheet to your EF.

Goals

QW: What is something you want to accomplish in 2018? Write down at least one goal you have for this year.

The new year is often about goals - New Year's Resolutions, a new start, changing old habits. However, statistics suggest that less than 10% of people are actually successful in completing their resolutions.

Why do people fail to stick to their New Year's Resolutions?  There are many reasons, including:

• It's hard to break old habits
• The goal is too vague; it's hard to really pin down what you need to do to achieve the goal
• After the initial excitement, you aren't willing to put in the effort needed to reach the goal
• It's not that important; you don't have the personal motivation to reach the goal
• There is a lack of support, you don't have the resources or emotional/social support
• You feel you can always get to it later, and right now you have other things to do

All of these reasons come back around to the same thing; either the goal was not the right goal for you, or it was poorly defined.  Many efficiency experts recommend using a strategy to set clear, meaningful goals.  These are known as SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Read the following article on SMART goals: SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

Now look at the goal you identified in the quick write.  Go through the steps in the article:

1. Specific - answer the questions:
• What, specifically, do I want to accomplish? (e.g. rather than "eat better", "eat 5 servings of vegetables per day" or "limit sugar to less than 15 grams per day"
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
2. Measurable: How will you know when the goal is accomplished?
3. Achievable: What skills or resources do you need to achieve this goal? How will you develop the skills or find the resources? Who can help you with this?
4. Relevant: Understand clearly why this goal is important to you.  Sometimes people are swayed by what other people think they should accomplish, and the goals are not personally meaningful enough to put in the effort required to achieve the goal.  Make sure this is YOUR goal, not something someone else thinks you should do.
5. Time-Bound: Set yourself a deadline!  If your goal is to save $500, when do you want to accomplish this?  Next week? Next month? Next year?  Or maybe your goal is to run a marathon within the next year.  Be specific.  Accountability can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it keeps you on track.

Once you have reviewed all of these, re-write your goal as a SMART goal.  Underneath your goal, address each of the 5 points above.

Example of a SMART goal: "I will run a half-marathon this summer"

• Specific - yes, I'm going to run a half-marathon
• Measurable - yes, either I've done it or I haven't
• Achievable - yes, but I'm going to have to get a training plan and stick to it.  A training partner would probably help keep me accountable.  Also, if I register for an event and pay the race fee, that will help keep me committed to achieving the goal
• Relevant - yes, I really want to get back into running and improve my physical condition.  This will really help with that.  
• Time-Bound - yes, it will happen this summer

Turn in your SMART Goal to your EF.

What's your major?

QW: What do you think is the best thing about college?  The hardest thing?

Interview two people who went to college using this worksheet.

Then write a 2-3 paragraph summary of what you learned from the interviews.  Focus specifically on anything you found interesting or surprising.

Thinking about Majors

QW: What would you study if you didn't have to worry about making money or getting a job?

When you think about what you want to major in in college, what comes to mind?  Do you have a subject you are passionate about and excited to start studying?  Or does the idea of choosing a course of study fill you with panic?  Or maybe a little of each?

Are you thinking of putting off the decision of what to study, and drifting for awhile?

Read this blog post  on choosing a major.  Now take a piece of paper and fold it in half.

For the left side, choose a major based on the idea of having a good job.  What major would you choose?  Why?  Write this at the top of the left column. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in this career.  Below where you've written the major, write a brief description of how you imagine a day in your life after you've graduated and gotten this "good job". How does this make you feel?  Excited? Nervous? Below your description, create a list of work-based experiences (e.g. internships or volunteer experiences) that would help you figure out if you would really enjoy this career.

For the right half of the paper, think of a major you might want to study just because it's interesting, without thinking about job prospects, and write the name of the major at the top of the right column.  Below the name of the major, explain why this is interesting to you. Do a Google search of "jobs with a _________ degree" and write down what you find.  Finally, create a list of some technical skills you could add to your studies to increase your job prospects if you were to choose this major.

Below what you've written in each column, draw a picture that captures your feelings about this major.

On the back of the paper, based on the above blog post and your experience in examining both choices, which do you think is the best course of action?  Create a list of possible majors, and identify the benefits and drawbacks of each.  Turn this paper in to your EF.

Career Exploration Part I

QW: What are some things that interest you?

Go to the website cacareerzone.org. First, under "Make Money Choices", click "Choose your Lifestyle."  Work through the questions, then make a note of the minimum salary needed to support your lifestyle.  You will need to multiply by 12 to get your minimum annual salary.  Enter the salary on this Google Doc.

Next, under "Assess Yourself", click "Begin Assessment" and choose the Interest Profiler.  After completing the interest profiler, click "explore occupations." Set the income range to include the value you calculated to support your lifestyle.  Then set the "job zone" scale at the top to job zone 1.  Then expand to job zones 1-2, then job zones 1-3, then 1-4 and finally 1-5.  What happens?

Job Zone 1 includes jobs that require little or no training.  Jobs in zone 2 require at least a high school diploma and some training, jobs in zone 3 require more training and possibly a certificate or associate's degree (from a community college, jobs in zone 4 generally require at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, and jobs in zone 5 require an advanced degree (master's, PhD, or professional degree).

Choose 4 or 5 careers you might be interested in (if you can't find 4 or 5 on that list, explore the rest of the site - you can search by job family, or explore all occupations). List the occupations you chose on the Google Doc, along with the job zone for each.

Choose two of the careers you listed above.  For each career, fill in the information on the Google Doc.  Then list at least 3 schools or programs where you can get the education or training you would need.  To search for colleges, use the college search tool on the College Board website.

Turn in the Google Doc to your EF.

Intellectual Curiosity

QW: What is something you are curious about?

Intellectual curiosity is very important for academic success.  If you’re not at all interested in learning new stuff, it can be very difficult to do so.  Communication of what you know and/or what you’ve learned is also important.  So for this CSS activity, we will combine intellectual curiosity and communication skills.

First, watch this TED talk by Stephen Robinson:

Reflect: What, if anything, did you find helpful from this talk about how to learn a new skill?  If you did not find the talk useful, I'm sorry; come up with your own list of steps to learn something new.

Act: Now it's time to learn something new.  You have between now and when you next meet with your EF. 

Some ideas for what you might want to learn: How to juggle, how to knit socks, what it takes to play sports in college, a new sport or game, a magic trick, how to play an instrument, how to identify edible wild plants, or anything else you’re curious about and don’t already know how to do.

A note of caution before you start: This will be much more fun and interesting for you (and everybody else) if you really open your mind up to be curious – find something you really want to know about instead of just approaching this as another crazy assignment from Alana.

Here’s what to do:

1. Find something interesting to learn about.  Once you’ve picked a broad topic, you will research the topic and present a short (1-2 min) presentation on what you learned.  For your learning resources, you can use websites, books, videos, anything that is appropriate.
2. Document your progress on this progress.  At a minimum, include a summary of your topic, what resources you used to learn it, and some notes about your progress along the way (e.g. successes and failures, how you felt during the process, what new things you're curious about, etc.) Bring these notes with you to step 3:
3. Prepare a short 1-2 minute presentation to share this exciting knowledge with your EF and possibly others.  It will be helpful if you incorporate visual aids (actual objects, or a poster or Powerpoint).  You can video tape this presentation.
4. Write a reflection of the learning process.  This should be 1/2 to 1 page on what you learned, how you learned it, how you feel about having learned it, and if you plan on pursuing learning more about this topic.

Good luck!

College Application Essays

QW: When completing a college or scholarship application essay, what is one thing you want to make sure the reader knows about you?

The college application process usually involves an online application, where you enter information about yourself and the classes you've taken, along with activities you participate in outside of school and an essay telling a little more about yourself.  Some applications also require letters of recommendation, test scores (SAT or ACT), and sometimes an interview.

Before you sit down to complete the application, think about the picture you want to present to the admission committee.  What is important for them to know about you?  What is unique about you, and what will you contribute to the college community?  Students often overlook some of their best qualities and attributes, because it seems normal - it's just your life, right?  When completing the application, be sure to take some time and think about your activities outside of school and make a list of everything you have done.  It's easy to forget some things, especially activities from freshman year. Keep in mind that what might be just regular old daily life for you could, in fact, be something a college admissions committee would be very interested in.

When it comes time to write the essay, read the prompt carefully and make sure you address the prompt.  However, also remember that the underlying question in every application essay prompt is "Who are you and what would make you a good addition to our campus community?"  What that means is, if the prompt asks you to tell about an influential person in your life, they don't actually want to know about your grandma (or your pastor, or your favorite teacher, or your mom or dad, or whoever that person is).  What they want to know is how has this person influenced you and helped you become the person you are - and what kind of person are you anyway?  If they ask about an event, it's not the event that's important; again, it's how it has affected you and how you've learned and grown from that event.  So whatever the question is asking, address the prompt, but also make sure the reader learns more about who you are, what's important to you, and how you interact in the world. They should know a lot more about you after reading your essay.  And I really do mean about YOU, not the soccer camp you attended in junior high.

Before starting this exercise, do the following (in order, one step at a time):

• make a list of at least 10 adjectives that describe you
• go back over the list, and change any adjectives with a negative connotation to more positive adjectives.  For example, instead of "stubborn", try "determined" or "committed to my values", or "persistent".
• next, group any similar adjectives together.  For example: outgoing, adventurous, risk-taker, active might be collected together in a group.
• then, choose one of these groupings of adjectives, and brainstorm ideas of examples you can give to show how you personify these traits. Using the example above, you might think of a time when you and some friends went backpacking, and you were the group leader.  When you are writing your essay and trying to make sure you get these qualities across to the reader, you don't just want to say "I'm very adventurous", you want to give them examples of when you've done adventurous things.
• finally, look over the list of essay questions and complete two essays following the directions on the list.

Now, complete two of the essays, using the prompts on this list, taking into account everything discussed in this post.  Again, using the adventurous example, if the prompt asks you to talk about an influential person in your life, and the idea you want to get across is that you're adventurous, you might talk about how your grandpa used to take you camping and backpacking (or traveling, or whatever) when you were young and how that helped you develop a love for the outdoors and a commitment to protecting the environment.  Of course, you wouldn't write it like that, but you would give examples and details that get this idea across.

Stress Effects on the Brain

QW: What do you do when you're stressed out?

Activity:
When you are under stress, some interesting things start to happen in your brain. This is a leftover effect from the days when humans regularly encountered life-threatening situations - like encounters with wild animals that might eat you. When you are under stress, the amygdala (a small, almond-shaped structure in your brain) sends out a signal that you are in danger.  Your endocrine system releases cortisol and adrenalin, your heart rate and breathing rate increase, your digestive and immune systems are suppressed (after all, there's no point in digesting breakfast when you're about to be somebody else's lunch).  Back in the caveman days, this response was helpful; it prepared the body to either run away or fight off the physical threat.  The problem is, the amygdala, and the stress response it sets in motion, does not distinguish between real, physical threats and psychological threats.  For the types of stress modern humans encounter, this response it not very helpful.  In fact, over the long run, it can be extremely detrimental to your health.

Furthermore, in times of stress, the frontal lobe (the part of your brain responsible for critical thinking and reasoning) starts to shut down and does not function properly.  So right at the point where you need it the most, your ability for critical thinking is reduced.

Assignment: Watch the videos below on the stress response, and discuss the content with your EF.  Then answer the questions in the Google doc here. Make a copy of the document for yourself, then you can type in your answers and share it with your EF.

Metacognition

QW: When you want to learn something new, what strategies do you use? What works well for you when you are trying to learn something? What doesn't work?

In last week's post, I discussed neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to grow and change as you learn, and the fact that young people between the ages or 12 and 25 experience a period of increased neuroplasticity. During this period of neuroplasticity, learning something new is easier and more efficient that it is likely to be as you get older.  It turns out there are strategies you can use to make your learning even more efficient during this (and any other) time in your life.

Cognition is "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses"; that is, cognition is the act of thinking. The term "metacognition" refers to thinking about your thinking - analyzing what you are thinking, why, and how you might change your thinking. You can think of it as "driving your brain" - directing how you think about and engage in learning, rather than setting it on autopilot as you move through your learning experiences. Sometimes you might need to back up and look at something again, or take a detour to gather more information about a topic before moving on. You might need to go slower, or faster, to improve your learning efficiency.

In addition to thinking about your thinking, metacognition involves monitoring your thinking and directing your thinking. An example of monitoring your thinking is when you are reading a passage in history, and realize partway through that you are not understanding what you are reading. At this point, you may realize you need to back up and re-read it, you may need to go back to a previous section to fill in some background knowledge, or look up some information. You may decide you need to take notes as you are reading, or stop after each paragraph and summarize for yourself what you just read. This whole process starts with monitoring your thinking and being aware of what you are and are not understanding. An example of directing your thinking is when you realize you are getting distracted by details, and you refocus your thinking on the main idea of what you are reading or hearing. Another example is when you find your mind wandering, and realize you need to stop and refocus your attention.

Activity:
Read the article below about metacognition, and answer the questions that follow:

Metacognition: How Thinking About Thinking Can Help Kids

Questions:

1. In your own words, describe what is meant by metacognition.
2. How can metacognition help you learn better?
3. Specifically, what strategies of metacognition (thinking about thinking, monitoring your thinking, and directing your thinking) can you apply to your learning this week? How will you apply these strategies?
4. Are you driving your brain, or just cruising on autopilot through your learning? What can you do to more effectively focus your thinking and learning?
5. Think about a recent test or assignment (one that you struggled with), and how you approached it. Was your approach effective? What could you have done differently to improve your study or work habits?
6. Think about an assignment or problem you are having right now. What have you tried? What are some other things you could try? How might you approach this problem or assignment differently? 
7. If you are stuck on an assignment, where can you look for help? Identify at least 3 actions you can take to get unstuck.

Mindset

QW: Describe a time you had to do something difficult.  How did you go about it?

Background Information:
Over the past decade or so, our ideas of how the mind works have changed drastically.  Many people used to believe that intelligence was a relatively fixed quantity, something that couldn't change substantially.  People also used to believe that once you achieved adulthood (indeed, shortly after you left your toddler years), you were stuck with the brain you had, and it wouldn't really change much over the course of the rest of your life.

Recent research has changed all of this.  Neuroscientists have discovered that in pre-adolescence and adolescence, the brain goes through a period of rapid growth in neural connections, followed by pruning of unused connections, similar to what happens with toddlers (for more information on this, see this article). This makes adolescence an incredibly important time for learning.  The neural connections that are used repeatedly will be kept and strengthened, those that are not used will be lost.  The implications are that this is the most efficient time to learn something - if you want to learn a language or how to play a musical instrument, for example, it will be much harder once this period of growth and pruning is over.

Another recent area of research is concerned with how students think about learning.  Researchers at Stanford have looked at how mindset, or how students think about their ability to learn, affects their academic success.  These attitudes are characterized as fixed mindset or growth mindset.  People with a fixed mindset think that intelligence or ability is something that is more or less pre-determined, and can't be changed much.  Those with a growth mindset, however, believe that through effort and meaningful feedback, people can improve their intelligence and abilities.  Current neurological research strongly supports the second idea - as we learn new things, new connections (called synapses) are actually created in our brains; that is, our brains actually change physically as a result of our learning.

Activity:
Read the following articles on learning and mindset:

Student's View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
Forget Talent: Why Practice is Key to Most Prodigies' Success

Then answer the questions on this Google Doc: Growth Mindset Reading Questions

You can learn more about the idea of a growth mindset here or here, and a ton of information on how mindset affects performance in math particularly at Jo Boler's Youcubed website.